


Swords and masters

by TheCursedChild



Category: Charmed (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-28
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-08-18 08:33:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8155805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCursedChild/pseuds/TheCursedChild
Summary: Phoebe needs someone to train with, Chris has no choice. Excalibur intervenes.





	

**Author's Note:**

> An idea that I had ages back and finally came around to finishing.

The appearance of Excalibur was soon forgotten by the Halliwell household. Only Phoebe couldn’t let the sword go. Well, it was not necessarily this particular blade that had captured her attention. It was her training with ones like it that she had neglected.

When Cole was still around, there was no day that went by without excersize. From hand-to-hand combat to swords and magical powers. It had been the highlight of her life in many ways. At first she had stopped because everything about combat brought back memories of her former husband. After that there was no one to train with, and a lingering laziness from her hiatus.

Phoebe considered asking Piper for help, but knowing what her first encounter with Excalibur had resulted in, she opted out. Her younger sister wouldn’t be much help either, Paige’s skill with a sword was non-existent. For only a short second she debated asking Wyatt if he wanted to, but that idea was quickly discarded. Piper would kill her.

Leo was a good option, but the Elder was never present when they needed him, let alone for what she had in mind. No matter how good a swordsman her brother-in-law was, he was unavailable.

That left one occupant in the house. The middle sister made her way to the attic, where her Whitelighter would no doubt be. Indeed, Chris stood bend over the Book of Shadows, his pen rapidly moving over the paper in front of him.

“Chris,” she calls. He doesn’t look up, just raises a finger to tell her to wait a second. The second has not passes yet three minutes later, so she repeats her call. “Chris!” This time Phoebe is slightly annoyed.

Her blood is already pumping with adrenaline just from the idea of excersize. She is impatiently shifting her weight from foot too foot. She strides to the young man and slams the book shut, trapping his notes between the pages.

“What do you need?” he asks resigned. He knows her well enough that he is aware there is no ignoring her when she is all jittery.

“How are you with fencing?” Phoebe asks, hoping against all odds that Chris is at least moderately competent, though she wouldn’t be surprised if he’s never touched a sword.

“Not my thing,” he replies without hesitation, reaching for the cover of the Book of Shadows again.  

Her hand is still blocking him, so he looks up to see her squint at him. “You replied too quickly,” she says suspiciously.

“I’m from the future,” Chris emphasizes, “Even if I didn’t have powers, I would probably have more luck with a gun than a sword.” She really doesn’t have to know about his fondness for blades in combination with his telekinesis. It comes in handy to carry some instead of using random projectiles that might or might not be within his range at any time.

Phoebe seems to be falling for his lie, so he brushes her hand of the book and flips back to the entry he had been working on.

“I’ll teach you!” Phoebe exclaims suddenly, thrumming with adrenaline. She grabs his wrist and drags him away from the attic. Chris stumbles after her, protesting all the way to the basement where she has cleared the space she and Cole had long ago turned into an exercise area.

“Look, Phoebe. I really appreciate that you have been training more, but this is not a good idea.” Mostly because unlike what she thinks, he can actually die if she stabs him. His healing powers aren’t all that up to par either.

“I don’t want to hear it. I need a partner, you need to learn how to fight. I mean, Leo really did a number on you on the island.”

Chris bites back his acid response. Leo was an elder with fifty years of training and with a total disregard for the well-being of the sisters’ whitelighter. Chris, while he really couldn’t care less about his father, still needed to be born and therefor had to be careful. Well that, and he needed to keep as many skills as possible a secret. He was only good at fighting with one specific sword anyway. He’d never had formal training, hadn’t needed it.

“Well thank you, that does wonders for my self-esteem. Good job convincing me to go along with this.” He moves to orb back upstairs when she wraps her fingers around his shoulder.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that,” she apologizes. His aunt does look contrite and he sees an opportunity to get one of the sisters to finally trust him here, so he swallows his pride and nods.

“Okay, but no drawing blood. I haven’t gotten the hang of my healing powers yet.” He sees the familiar look of disbelieve on her face. They all have the same look in their eyes in the future, because Wyatt healed his mom from the womb, and Chris was an adult already.

It takes him a second to get over that look and the feelings it invokes within him. He breathes through it with difficulty and walks over to a make shift weapons rack where he picks a blunt sword randomly. He hands his aunt another one and moves into a basic fighting stance.

He knows the theory and has had some practice, even though it doesn’t come naturally. Phoebe copies him, obviously more skilled and comfortable as she studies his body clinically.

“You’ve had some training,” she speaks up once she’s evaluated him. There is a happy thrill in her tone that Chris gets the same warm feeling he always got when she complimented him. He can’t figure out why he hasn’t tried this before, bonding with a sister over something else than imminent threat. This is how you create trust in a world lacking a war like his. You don’t do it by saving lives, you do it by building a bond.

“Just the basics,” Chris shrugs. When your brother comes at you with a magical sword you learn quickly how to block blows because if you don’t you lose a limb and a lot of blood.

“Ready?” she asks him with consideration. Cole’s way of teaching is the only one she knows, so it will have to do for Chris as well.

He nods and they circle each other. She watches his footing and he does the same. Their personalities as they are, Chris defensive and secretive, Phoebe grounded and fierce, decide who attacks first.

Phoebe lunges at Chris who blocks, the blades meeting with a loud clang. Then there is a flash of light and both of them take a step back, blinded.

As the stars leave their eyes they first look at each other to make sure nobody was wounded and only then Chris figures out what happened.

Excalibur is in his hand, and Phoebe’s practice sword has been cut in two where he deflected her blow.

He drops the sword with extreme prejudice, the blade hitting concrete.

“What was that?” Phoebe exclaims, staring from the swords to Chris and back.

“I have no idea,” Chris admits, not taking his eyes off the sword which should be upstairs and is Wyatt’s. Chris should know. He has seen the damage Excalibur has done in Wyatt’s hands, knows it is coated with blood of demons and family members alike.

“I thought only Wyatt could summon Excalibur,” Phoebe hints for him to explain this right now or she is going to call the whole family together and make him.

“He is,” Chris confirms, his mind racing with possibilities. He had been able to wield Excalibur once in the future. He had been breaking into his brother’s place to snoop for documents on the location of a group of light witches the older man had captured when he got caught. The sword had been the closest sharp object and he had grabbed it in desperation as his powers didn’t work there.

For a few minutes, he had been able to hold Wyatt off with it as he fought his way out of the cage  suppressing light magic specifically. He had felt connected to it, been one with it and skillful in a way no newbie should be.

Once he’d made it out and realized exactly how sullied the sword had become, and unable to keep Wyatt away from it, he’d thrown it back into a stone and dropped it in a lake to rid himself of the taint.

“Maybe you are the guardian, like Piper is?” Phoebe suggests quietly, moving closer like she is trying to not startle a scared deer.

It is only then that Chris realizes he is shaking, the memory of Wyatt jogging something loose in his usually controlled emotions.

He grabs Phoebe and orbs back up, racing to the book and getting to the page about the sword. Chris speed-reads though the words and then does it again slowly, trying to absorb the meaning of the words in-between his jumbled thoughts.

“Those who use it and are not destined for it, will be corrupted and ultimately destroyed by an all-consuming lust for power.” Phoebe reads the words that are echoing in his mind out loud.

“This is it,” Chris says. “This has to be it.”

Somehow, against all logic, the sword had never belonged to Wyatt. He, like Piper, had been able to summon and wield it, but it had never been meant for them. For whatever reason, Chris was supposed to claim Excalibur instead of his older and stronger brother.

However, because the assumption that the sword belonged to Wyatt had never been contested, he had been allowed to practice with it since his late teens, and whatever evil had been hidden in the confines of the blessed child had been corrupted and turned him to crave power above all else like it had done to Piper only recently.

If he can get the sword away from his brother, it probably wont matter what kind of seed evil plants in the boy before Chris is born. Without the sword corrupting him the seed will never grow, and the war will never begin. 


End file.
